Investors Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Smartsheet (NYSE:SMAR)

Smartsheet Inc (NYSE:SMAR) saw some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders bought 9,585 call options on the company. This is an increase of 393% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,944 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Smartsheet from $50.00 to $56.50 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Truist Financial reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $56.50 price objective (down from $60.00) on shares of Smartsheet in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Smartsheet from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $57.00 price target on shares of Smartsheet in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Smartsheet from $51.00 to $56.50 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.47.

Smartsheet Stock Down 0.2 %

SMAR stock opened at $55.37 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $49.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $43.43. Smartsheet has a twelve month low of $35.52 and a twelve month high of $55.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.69 billion, a PE ratio of -89.30 and a beta of 0.74.

Smartsheet (NYSE:SMAR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $276.41 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $274.23 million. Smartsheet had a negative net margin of 4.07% and a negative return on equity of 4.29%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.23) EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Smartsheet will post -0.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smartsheet declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 5th that authorizes the company to repurchase $150.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 2.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other Smartsheet news, CEO Mark Patrick Mader sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.78, for a total transaction of $1,035,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 588,762 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,486,096.36. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Mark Patrick Mader sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.78, for a total transaction of $1,035,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 588,762 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,486,096.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Jolene Lau Marshall sold 3,571 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.59, for a total transaction of $180,656.89. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 13,529 shares in the company, valued at approximately $684,432.11. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 39,429 shares of company stock valued at $1,952,525. 4.52% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Smartsheet

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SMAR. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Smartsheet in the 4th quarter valued at about $68,879,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Smartsheet by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 14,014 shares of the company’s stock valued at $670,000 after purchasing an additional 402 shares during the period. UBS Group AG grew its holdings in shares of Smartsheet by 59.9% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 181,234 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,667,000 after purchasing an additional 67,878 shares during the last quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC grew its holdings in shares of Smartsheet by 21.5% in the fourth quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 6,682 shares of the company’s stock worth $320,000 after purchasing an additional 1,184 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of Smartsheet by 34.0% in the fourth quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 524,236 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,069,000 after buying an additional 133,153 shares during the period. 90.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Smartsheet Company Profile

Smartsheet, Inc engages in managing and automating collaborative work. Its platform provides solutions that eliminate the obstacles to capturing information, including a familiar and intuitive spreadsheet interface as well as easily customizable forms. The company was founded by W. Eric Browne, Maria Colacurcio, John D.